How to Adapt your Email Marketing to the Corona Virus Crisis?

For a couple of months, Corona Virus has been dominating the news headlines around the world. Considering this situation all around the globe, brand marketers are in dire need to know how to deal with this condition since it is impacting our world economy severely. 

Just like any other marketing trick, coronavirus has also affected email marketing, which could affect your online store. This devastating virus has already unsettled the stock market and caused operational disruptions to various industries, be it health, eCommerce, medicine, or education.

This leaves email marketers with two questions, which are how to respond to these changes and how to anticipate customer’s behavior so it won’t affect sales at a large scale. However, to help the affected countries and regaining the world economy, you need to make new marketing strategies keeping the current situation in mind.

As an email marketer, you must be thinking about how you can do this. So, here is how you can adapt your email marketing to the coronavirus crisis.

• Do Not Focus On Your Sales During This Sensitive Time

Don’t just stay silent at the time of crisis. Instead, show some support and empathy during this frightening situation. Although there will be times where you can say the wrong things at the wrong time, in this situation, you just have to show full support to the affected people and their families.

So, in this situation, keep focusing on “how can you support your customers during this devastating time” instead of just focusing on increasing your sales. This can even work against you for brand promotion.    

Many companies, including Dell, Microsoft, etc. have already donated millions of dollars to the Chinese Red Cross. But you don’t have to make a dent in your pocket if you are on short on cash. You can build your brand by sharing motivating messages, sending some products to those in need, and creating relevant content to educate people.  

Apart from this, make sure you don’t use this time or leverage the virus to increase the sales of your eCommerce store. DO NOT focus on promoting sales by offering discounts sales. Although it can increase your sales, it could have a bad effect on your reputation. 

Another great measure to support is to provide the necessary items. For instance, provide free masks to them so they can protect themselves from the virus. Or, since the people would be washing their hands more often, you can give them hand creams to prevent their hands from drying. You can send these products directly to the hospital or distribute them at their homes.

• Target The Right Customers

Since people are staying more and more inside their homes, it is driving online sales. It is also leading to low inventory and delays in logistics and manufacturing, which makes it hard to deliver products to customers who are paying.    

With this in mind, instead of making efforts to acquire new customers, e-commerce marketers should focus on developing existing customers with the highest lifetime value. They are the ones who will stay and spend beyond the crisis period.

Leverage deep learning to analyze your data more effectively to identify your high-value customers. It is done by examining past behaviors and discovering patterns for segmenting audiences, then predicting conversion rates for each group. Once you have this idea, you can customize your engagement campaigns accordingly.

Also, this is the time where target the right customers is essential. Keep in mind your products and focus on the right customers. Suppose you are selling masks; in this case, do not target kids. Instead, it would be best if you targeted their parents and hospitals. 

Also, whatever you are creating and sending in your email, make sure to make it relevant and compelling. So, people are forced to open it and browse through your sections. By keeping the coronavirus in mind, integrating crisis-relevant keywords and visuals into your email marketing campaigns and advertising can help you draw attention to them. However, you need to be careful and make sure they are appropriate.

Also, do not run the campaigns for the products that are not related to the current situation. However, if your product can help people right now, as a hand sanitizer, you should spread your message and your product.

• Communicate More Often

Given the current situation, more and more people are avoiding social interactions and prefer to be in the home as a safety measure. This gives you the right opportunity to communicate more often with your customers, as they will be online more often. People confining themselves to their homes can lead to higher opening rates.

You will be surprised to know that all social marketing platforms have experienced a sudden increase in the number of users. Be it content related to fitness and health, games, crafts, or the latest news; the people are spending most of their behind their laptop or phone screens.

So, you can send out relevant emails more often instead every other week or once a month. You can have your email sent out daily or every alternate day, or you can create your videos and apps to promote your brand.  

For instance, if you are in the health and fitness industry, you can promote videos of simple exercises and eat healthy meals to fight the virus. Also, promote your product the right way. Promote your products along with some safety measures and encourage people to stay healthy and strong if you are selling food items. 

• Segmenting Your Audience

Another important thing that will boost your email marketing sales is segmenting your audience. Segmenting your contact lists will help you deliver the relatable and valuable information to your audience at the appropriate time.

Coronavirus is making more and more people go online and read about it. With reading more and more about this virus, they will buy relevant products to help and protect themselves from getting infected by the virus.

This has opened numerous opportunities for you and various brands. The industries may include wellness, healthcare, and pharmacy. To avail the maximum benefits during this time of crisis, you need to focus on the right customers at the appropriate time.    

You can seek help from artificial intelligence-driven tools to analyze the online data to identify who reads the content on the coronavirus and what type of content they read. You can then segment your target audience based on the keywords or topics that interest them to provide relevant content for more precise targeting.       

• Communicate In A Sensitive Manner

At this time of crisis, you need to handle your audience in a sensitive manner. Since this virus has affected the population physically and mentally, you need to be very cautious while dealing with these issues and its affected people.

Don’t be materialistic and mean and just focusing on selling the products. This might affect your reputation in a bad way, which could affect your sales after this situation as well. Keep in mind that they are going through a hard time and just need some mental support.  

Additionally, in every email, make sure to include some helpful data. It could some tips and tricks to keep prevented from the virus or mention them nearby locations where they can get themselves tested if they are experiencing symptoms of this virus.

Besides, not everyone is fully aware of the situation and the harmful effects of the virus. With your email, you can make everyone aware of the current situation and give them precautionary tips to deal with the circumstances. Mention the symptoms of the virus and tell them to get them tested at the earliest so they can be cured.  

At this time, you need to be more sensitive. Make sure you are putting your ads and emails in the right context. Pay more attention to when and how your customers see your emails. Before sending out an email, make sure that your language is natural. Use web-based tools to analyze the data and gain a better knowledge of customers so you can help them in this needy hour. 

Conclusion

Although this is a tough time for many countries, the good news is the crisis is only temporary. With people spending most of their time online, it is a fantastic opportunity to build your brand name. You can do this by following the sure-shot tips mentioned above. Or, you can engage more people by endowing them with interesting and quality content. 

Keeping the current circumstances in mind, if you focus primarily on education and entertainment, it would be really beneficial for email marketing campaigns and brands. Also, show workers some internal support as well. Let them work from home and make sure to check in on them and their families.  

However, with all these tips and tricks, make sure to keep your customers your top priority. Support them and be available for them round the clock by adjusting your marketing strategy accordingly. With these, you can be in a good position to keep your brand safe currently and in the future as well. 

Also, if you need help with your email marketing, you can contact us. We, at Mailpro, will give you genuine suggestions regarding your campaigns to increase your conversion rate.